In a move that surprised at least me, Microsoft announced that it has canceled all XSN sports titles in development this year for the Xbox. That doesn't mean some titles won't come out in 2005, but it certainly gives Sony's 989 Online a big chance to build its fan base for online sports titles. RalliSport Challenge 2 will still ship in April for XSN Sports, but there won't be another game until at least 2005, or perhaps not until the Xbox 2. XSN and 989 Online both launched around the same time. The Sony and Microsoft online sports networks were developed to give gamers more sense of community while playing the two consoles' online sports games. The problem, according to XSN Sports Studio Manager Kevin Browne, was that XSN's titles weren't as well received as the company had hoped. I did a feature story for the Rocky Mountain News on the two networks when they launched, and I thought both networks were fairly similar, but that PS2's traditional sports games, like football and basketball, were far better, while the non-traditional Xbox games like Top Spin and Links were awesome. That's pretty much what Browne says in an interview with IGN. Microsoft pulled the plug because the big sports titles just weren't well received, and the designers need to go back to the drawing board.

USER COMMENTS 10 comment(s)

If at first you don't succeed…(9:50am EST Wed Mar 31 2004)Try, try again. Well maybe it will be much improved on the XBOX 2. XBOX RULES. - by boywonder

one more time(10:37am EST Wed Mar 31 2004)just proves ms is not good at making software. ms is a very good liar, cheat and thief. - by getting old

XSN Sports(8:03pm EST Wed Apr 07 2004)Microsoft is building Sports Net. Sports Net is XSN Sports 2.0 for Xenon. Xenon will enable/force gamers to pay for play online by storing all rankings and scores online. No hardrive on Xenon. Offline/single player games will be 'just for practice'. EA will supply the content. Xbox Live will provide the service, gamers will pay the price, the price will be whatever Microsoft determines but not until there are no other legitimate options. Until then, they'll play nice. Welcome to the Matrix. - by X2 Deepthroat